Five Content Marketing trends for 2014 and beyond

By Anila Bangash
Correspondent, SAM Daily Times

Any marketing layout which uses the conception and distribution of contenting sort to get your hands on the valuable clients. Let’s say, together with information, news, video,how-to guides white, e-books, info graphics, case studies, and query and answer piece of writing, shots etc.


As per the recent report, Content on the internet has tripled between 2010 - 2013 and social media sharing has doubled between 2011-2013.God! Isn't it too much of content? How to identify and recognize quality content?I anticipate as a marketer, we need to create interesting content and make our customers the hero of our stories. I think, Content marketing isn't going anywhere. If anything, it’s going to become more integral to business marketing. People don’t want just ‘Brand-Gyan’, but valuable information to help them make better purchase decision.

Let’s first articulate the reasons for content marketing, flying high and the reason for being an integral part of the overall marketing agenda.

• Why integrate Content Marketing to business marketing?
• Provokes customer engagement and interaction
• Easy to go viral via social media and generate powerful word-of-mouth marketing
• Easy to communicate with your prospects
• Increases the page rank on search engines
• Doesn't get stale

It is likewise believed that lot of CMO’s plans to increase their content marketing budget for this fiscal year. Here are the top trends that will sway the content marketing in near future.

1. Mobile Friendly Websites

Smartphone and tablet usage is rising and continues to shake up the way businesses operate. In today's society of instant gratification, people have short attention spans. They want the news in 140-character snippets, and they want infinite information accessible at their fingertips via Smartphones and tablets. With many companies’ turning to their mobile devices to find information and shop, it has become a necessity to have a mobile friendly website.

2. Accept this: Content, not your brand is King

With the recent change in Google algorithm, it is difficult for search engines to pick images and video and this is the reason that text based content will work in the future. Brands should also shift from industry news and trends to “’Here’s how you can use my products’ to ‘grow your own business – and how our company can help’.”

3. Infographics

Infographicshave a key role in a highly successful content marketing strategy. They are more fun, easy to read and understand and can go viral on the internet. We are perpetually exposed to information overload via our computers, tablets, and Smartphones, the key is to generate maximum attention with easy recall. Most people forget a large amount of what they’ve read, but they do remember what they’ve seen.

4. Webinars

Webinars – or online, real time presentations – have become one of the most popular strategies for effective content marketing. A key feature of a webinar is your ability to interact with "live" instructors in real time. Webinars are cost-effective for both marketers and content consumers. But you should understand that nobody is going to sit through a 60 min. Webinar, instead make itmore comfyfor your audience and break it down to 5-10 min.snippets.

5. Easy Tracking

I anticipate that 2014 will see the rise of better measurement tools that don’t just track clicks and likes, but actual engagement in the form of discussion, shares across multiple platforms/channels, and actions as a result of those shares. Presently, it’s too cumbersome, expensive and time-consuming for a marketing team to micromanage the analytics for every single bit of content to watch how it performed – so companies simply don’t invest in it.

Remember, content marketing is evolving every day, which means you need to continue to improve and adjust your strategy accordingly. Content Marketing is no longer an option when it comes to your advertising plan, it's a necessity.